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In push to end child marriage in Guatemala, young women are on the front line

Sara Schonhardt

December 28, 2017 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Guatemala, Tierra Blanca

In some rural parts of Guatemala, "more than half the girls...marry before the age of 18." While a coalition of organizations was able to lobby lawmakers, and raise the legal marriage age to 18, real changes happened at the community level when mentors engaged with girls.

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How Texas' Harris County went from ‘capital of capital punishment' to zero executions

Henry Gass

December 27, 2017 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Houston, Texas

In 2017, Harris County, TX saw a year where no one was sentenced to death and no one was executed. The county, nicknamed as the capital of capital punishment, is seeing a shift in the support of the death penalty. While studies haven’t shown a definitive answer, it has been linked to new, reform-focused DAs, the introduction of life sentences without parole, and Supreme Court decisions that likely diminished the use of capital punishment.

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A digital solution when children can't find books in their mother tongue

Gretel Kauffman

December 26, 2017 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Rwanda

Research says that bilingual kids reap significant benefits from reading in their primary language. One nonprofit working in Rwanda, Congo, Haiti, Cambodia, and Mongolia provides digital books in students' strongest language and recruits local writers to create age-level books with local context: "It's not just a matter of translating materials," a professor at Columbia's Teachers College notes. "It's a matter of valorizing the home culture and language of the learners."

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In the race to help Latino students, one California county pulls ahead

Jessica Mendoza

December 13, 2017 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Moreno Valley, California

In 2016, California's Riverside County achieved an 86 percent graduation rate, second to only Orange County in the state. The impressive spike followed in the wake of a multi-pronged, data-focused drive to support predominantly low-income students through the oftentimes complicated and unfamiliar college application process. Local nonprofit director Ryan Smith says, “We often ask [students and families] to navigate a system not designed for them, instead of meeting students where they’re at." Riverside is working to change that reality.

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How a Tulsa 'failure factory' turned around its graduation rate in three years

Amadou Diallo

December 05, 2017 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Tulsa, Oklahoma

In high-poverty urban schools student retention is a major issue, often school is the last concern for these children. Now, City Year and other nonprofits have university students come to the high schools and tutor or mentor the high school kids and provide a place for them to talk, as well as other measures that help keep students in school.

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In Jordan, an empowering solution for UN-run refugee camps

Taylor Luck

December 05, 2017 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Jordan, Za'atari

Solar power projects at 2 UN refugee camps in Jordan are helping to save money and provide job opportunities for residents of the camps. The solar powered camps are also helping the quality of living, allowing residents to move freely in the evenings and complete tasks even when it's dark outside.

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How white parents are addressing racism – by reading to their children

Christa Case Bryant

November 29, 2017 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis-based We Stories provides parents with a course curriculum and reading list for the children with the goal of sparking conversations about race, oppression, and cultural awareness. The target audience of the organization is white families, who—through neighborhood demographics or socioeconomic status—may not have to directly engage with these issues unless they choose to do so.

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How one school is rising above gang activity to find college success

Amadou Diallo

November 21, 2017 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

Benito Juarez Community Academy in Chicago was once reputed for gang violence, struggled to support its predominantly minority students, and was had been on academic probation for nearly two decades. A revolutionary approach to academics that uses a skills-based model tailored to the needs of each individual student and emphasizes true mastery of a skill rather than memorization and regurgitation has had remarkable success, bringing Juarez up to among the top 50 schools in the state for graduation rates and test scores and making it a destination school for students of color.

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Rural schools unite to make college the rule, rather than the exception

Amadou Diallo

November 16, 2017 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Ohio

High school students in rural areas show lower rates of college degrees and have fewer opportunities such as not having a dual enrolment program that allows them to take college courses while in high school. Ohio Appalachian Collaborative involves rural schools working together to fight for grants and opportunities for the students in rural areas, and so far the statistics show that more students are going to college and are more engaged in high school.

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The anti-Washington: College group offers a model for debating politely

Stacy Teicher Khadaroo

October 26, 2017 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, South Bend, Indiana

Amid divisive free speech discussions on campus, students across the country formed BridgeUSA, a group dedicated to the 'transpartisanship' movement. Student representatives are trained to facilitate constructive discussions with members of all political parties on campus. John Sarrouf, who trains students, noted, "The question shouldn’t be 'freedom of speech vs. safe spaces … but how do we create the context for people to engage each other [who have differences]?"

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